问题
I develop an application on IBM worklight for android. I have to use a web service, but I need worklight server. I wonder that why an app developed on worklight needs a worklight server. Don't I develop an application without worklight server ?
回答1:
There are various features IBM Worklight provides that require the Worklight Server. For example:
Adapters that allow you to get data from REST and SOAP APIs via HTTP, SQL DB, JMS and IBM Cast Iron. These live on the Worklight Server and always send JSON back to the client, despite what the original service returned (e.g. XML). You can find more information in the Getting Started Modules. However, this does not stop you from doing normal AJAX requests from the client without using the Worklight Server. I posted an example of doing an simple AJAX request here. Another feature is that you can use Java (not JavaScript) code to provide functionality inside those Adapters.
Direct Updates - As soon as you deploy a Worklight Hybrid Application to the Worklight Server, when existing mobile devices with the application installed contact the server they will be notified that there's an update. After the user has selected to upgrade, resources (HTML, CSS, JS) files will be downloaded from the Worklight Server and he/she will have an updated application without going through Apple's or Google's Application stores. There is also a way to disable access to a Worklight Hybrid Application.
Security - There are various security features that depend on the Worklight Server. For example: Custom Device Provisioning and various types of Authentication. Some level of communication with the Worklight Server is required for data storage features like: JSONStore and Encrypted Cache.
Using the Worklight Server is not required, but it will limit the amount of features your application can take advantage of.
回答2:
An app without a WL server is just a PhoneGap/Cordova app. The whole point of WL is to have the server backend to provide updating, user access controls, and secure data communication, for example using adapters to interface with servers that may be behind firewalls.
If you don't need the server, then you probably don't really need WL. If you do use WL, just use an adapter to talk to the web server.
回答3:
The Worklight Server is a runtime container for the mobile applications you develop in Worklight Studio. It is not an application server in the Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition (JEE) sense. It acts as a container for Worklight application packages, and is in fact a collection of web applications (optionally packaged as an EAR file) that run on top of traditional application servers.
Worklight Server is designed to integrate into the enterprise environment and use its existing resources and infrastructure. This integration is based on adapters that are server-side software components responsible for channeling back-end enterprise systems and cloud-based services to the user device. You can use adapters to retrieve and update data from information sources, and to allow users to perform transactions and start other services and applications.
You can use Worklight Server for the following tasks:
Empower hundreds of thousands of users with transactional capabilities and enable their direct access to back-end systems and cloud-based services.
Configure, test, and deploy descriptive XML files to connect to various back-end systems by using standard Worklight Studio tools.
Directly update deployed hybrid and web applications, without going through the different app stores (subject to the terms of service of the vendor).
Automatically convert hierarchical data to JSON format for optimal delivery and consumption.
Enhance users interaction with a uniform push notification architecture.
Define complex mashups of multiple data sources to reduce overall traffic.
Integrate with the existing security and authentication mechanisms of the organization.
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/wrklight/v6r0m0/index.jsp
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15191841/why-do-worklight-apps-need-a-worklight-server